Tributaries
Kaija J. Xiao and  Lu Yim
curated by First Brick
April 19, 2018

Artist Statements:

“This photographic installation imagines an otherwise clean, white walled space as a site to occupy, center, and assemble a fantasy world that is decisively and explicitly queer.”
— Kaija J. Xiao

“When I make, I have to ask why I am producing. When I perform, I have to ask why we are gathered in a room. Am I part of a production line? Am I really living and making within this utopic queer temporality that I stand by and speak about?”
— Lu Yim

Kaija J. Xiao is a queer, multimedia artist working in and around her community in Portland, OR to make social art that adapts spaces to reimagine “normal” in our contemporary society. She’s interested in working with people, in and around my community to create spaces that are both challenging and subverting dominant cultures while providing visibility, and safety to members of her communities. As a queer, gay, trans woman who is mixed race, she understands herself as a mix of these intersections, as someone that is both in each of these communities, but also someone entirely different and made whole from these identities. kaijajx.com // @kaija.x

Lu Yim is a dancer and an artist/performer based in Portland, OR. Their most recent work has appeared via collaboration: Physical Education’s Futility of Preparedness opened at Linfield College in March 2018 and DeeDee’s Total Sell Out! opened at the Alice Gallery in March 2018. Both exhibitions dealt with buildings crumbling down. They got a thing coming up with Allie Hankins in May and will be performing in  cvllejerx - ropa vieja at S1 also in May. These days they are obsessed with space and with friendship. lu-yim.com // @Lu_Yim

First Brick is the curatorial collaboration of Molly Alloy, Allynn Carpenter, and James Knowlton. First Brick offers a platform for those individuals who resist assimilation within heteronormative white supremacist patriarchy. The first brick can be a brave act of dissent against the establishment, or the first gesture towards a new foundation. Follow us on IG for updates: @first.brick